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MJK

Marcin Jackowicz-Korczynski

Research engineer

MJK

Earlier snowmelt may lead to late season declines in plant productivity and carbon sequestration in Arctic tundra ecosystems

Author

  • Donatella Zona
  • Peter M. Lafleur
  • Koen Hufkens
  • Barbara Bailey
  • Beniamino Gioli
  • George Burba
  • Jordan P. Goodrich
  • Anna K. Liljedahl
  • Eugénie S. Euskirchen
  • Jennifer D. Watts
  • Mary Farina
  • John S. Kimball
  • Martin Heimann
  • Mathias Göckede
  • Martijn Pallandt
  • Torben R. Christensen
  • Mikhail Mastepanov
  • Efrén López-Blanco
  • Marcin Jackowicz-Korczynski
  • Albertus J. Dolman
  • Luca Belelli Marchesini
  • Roisin Commane
  • Steven C. Wofsy
  • Charles E. Miller
  • David A. Lipson
  • Josh Hashemi
  • Kyle A. Arndt
  • Lars Kutzbach
  • David Holl
  • Julia Boike
  • Christian Wille
  • Torsten Sachs
  • Aram Kalhori
  • Xia Song
  • Xiaofeng Xu
  • Elyn R. Humphreys
  • Charles D. Koven
  • Oliver Sonnentag
  • Gesa Meyer
  • Gabriel H. Gosselin
  • Philip Marsh
  • Walter C. Oechel
Show all

Summary, in English

Arctic warming is affecting snow cover and soil hydrology, with consequences for carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems. The scarcity of observations in the Arctic has limited our understanding of the impact of covarying environmental drivers on the carbon balance of tundra ecosystems. In this study, we address some of these uncertainties through a novel record of 119 site-years of summer data from eddy covariance towers representing dominant tundra vegetation types located on continuous permafrost in the Arctic. Here we found that earlier snowmelt was associated with more tundra net CO2 sequestration and higher gross primary productivity (GPP) only in June and July, but with lower net carbon sequestration and lower GPP in August. Although higher evapotranspiration (ET) can result in soil drying with the progression of the summer, we did not find significantly lower soil moisture with earlier snowmelt, nor evidence that water stress affected GPP in the late growing season. Our results suggest that the expected increased CO2 sequestration arising from Arctic warming and the associated increase in growing season length may not materialize if tundra ecosystems are not able to continue sequestering CO2 later in the season.

Department/s

  • Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science

Publishing year

2022

Language

English

Publication/Series

Scientific Reports

Volume

12

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Physical Geography

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2045-2322